I’ve always been a loyal AA fan. One reason is that AA was the first U.S. airline I really got to know. Another is that among the three major airlines, the nearest hub to where I live is AA’s home base, DFW. A third is that AA has several high-quality partners, such as Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines. So it’s only natural that I have a soft spot for AA. Today, chanye will talk about American Airlines miles. If anything is incomplete, please excuse me.
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Earn Miles by Flying
Among the three major legacy U.S. airlines still in existence (AA, UA, and DL), American Airlines (AA) is the only one that still awards redeemable miles based on flight distance. For that reason alone, all else being equal, buying an AA ticket generally gives you a better return than buying a UA or DL ticket.
For example, take the PVG-LAX route, which all three airlines operate. Using winter break airfare as an example:
If you fly American Airlines (AA) (AA mileage earning chart), one round trip earns 6485*2*100%=12,970 miles (assuming discounted economy fare and no elite status).
If you fly United Airlines (UA) (UA mileage earning chart), one round trip earns only 837*5=4185 miles (with no elite status), or 837*11=9207 miles (with UA’s top elite tier, “Primier 1,000”).
If you fly Delta (DL) (DL mileage earning chart), one round trip earns only 874*5=4370 miles (with no elite status), or 874*11=9614 miles (with DL’s top elite tier, “Diamond Medallion”).
Of course, when crediting partner flights, AA, UA, and DL generally all use flight distance as the basis, though the exact amount depends on each partner earning rate, which I won’t go into here. For AA specifically, see AA partner mileage earning. As you can see, no matter what status level you have, flying AA gives you the highest mileage return. 12970 miles is already enough for a one-way domestic U.S. award ticket, while DL or UA would leave you far short of that.
Earn Miles by Renting Cars
American Airlines (AA) currently has 12 car rental partners, including the three major rental groups Avis/Budget, Enterprise/National/Alamo, Hertz/Thrifty/Dollar, as well as others like Sixt.
See: AA car rental partners
The number of miles you can earn from car rentals varies from person to person. Generally speaking, though, this won’t be a major source of miles. That said, it is a good way to keep your miles from expiring.
Shopping Portal
AA currently has its official shopping portal (AAdvantage eShopping). It works the same way as ebates and other cashback portals. For a general introduction to rebate/cashback sites, see ymlulu’s article on this site (Rebate and Cashback Sites — A Great Way to Save Money Shopping Online), so I won’t repeat the basics here. In general, AA’s portal tends to offer lower returns than traditional cashback sites (even after considering the real-world value of AA miles), though sometimes promotions can boost the payout significantly. Also, this is another good way to keep your miles from expiring.
Dining Program
Like the other major airlines, AA also partners with Reward Network, giving members a way to earn AA miles by dining at participating restaurants and paying with a registered credit card. See (AAdvantage Dining).
As above, the amount you can earn through this method varies by person, but usually it won’t be a huge number of miles. Still, it is another good way to keep your miles from expiring.
In addition, Reward Network often runs promotions, such as 1,000 miles after a new member spends $40, or 10,000 miles after dining 10 times. If you receive one of these offers, it can definitely be worth participating.
Credit Cards
I believe that for most readers of this blog, the main source of AA miles in their accounts is credit card rewards.
Right now, AA mainly has co-branded credit cards with Citi, as well as legacy cards with Barclays carried over from the US Airways era.
For Barclays AA co-branded cards, see ymlulu’s article on this site (Barclays Aviator Series (Basic/Blue/Red/Sliver) — The Swan Song of US Airways)
From top to bottom, Citi’s AA co-branded cards are Executive, Platinum Select, Gold, and Bronze.
Executive once had a 100,000-mile sign-up bonus. Right now, the sign-up bonus is only 75,000 miles, and the $450 annual fee is not waived the first year.
For Platinum Select, see ymlulu’s article on this site (Citi AAdvantage Platinum — A Great Card for Saving Miles). The current sign-up bonus is 50,000 miles, with a $95 annual fee waived the first year.
Gold usually comes with a 25,000-mile sign-up bonus, though during special deals it may go up to 30,000 miles. The annual fee is $50, waived the first year.
Bronze has no annual fee and is generally only kept as a downgrade option to preserve credit history.
Transfer Points
At the moment, the only mainstream points currency that transfers to AA miles is SPG. Perhaps Citi TYP will add AA as a transfer partner in the future as well—I certainly hope so.
In simple terms, when transferring to AA, each SPG point converts to one AA mile. For every 20,000 points transferred, SPG also gives an extra 5,000 points’ worth of miles (for AA, that means 5,000 extra miles). On top of that, SPG is currently running a promotion offering another 5,000 bonus miles for every 20,000 points transferred to AA. That means 20k SPG converts to 30,000 AA total, which is currently the best value way to build up AA miles.
Also, the SPG card currently has a limited-time 30,000-point bonus, which is hard to pass up. For details, see ymlulu’s article on this site [30,000 Highest Bonus Returns] AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) — I’m the Queen of Versatility
For more on SPG points, see ymlulu’s article on this site Guide to Using SPG Points (Starpoints)
Summary
There may seem to be many ways to earn AA miles, but the only methods that really let you earn large amounts are basically flying and credit cards.
For flying, one fast way to rack up miles is the so-called mileage run: using long routings with connections and relatively cheap tickets to earn more miles than the ticket price would suggest. That involves a lot of technical detail, so I won’t go into it here.
For credit cards, there are mainly two approaches: sign-up bonuses, and everyday spending or manufactured spending (MS). I won’t discuss those in too much detail here either.
Now that we’ve covered how to earn AA miles, the next article will focus mainly on redeeming AA miles.